There are numerous types of keyboard products on the market in response to different consumer requirements. Many producers also provide illuminated keyboards with integrated lighting modules to generate illumination effect to attract consumers and increase consumers' purchase desire. While providing illumination function is important, trying to improve the structural design to reduce the total thickness of the keyboard module also is a heavy focus of the producers so that it can be widely adopted on notebook computers or desktop computers that highlight thinner and lighter design.
A conventional illuminated keyboard such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,319,130, 7,939,773 and 6,217,183 generally includes a keycap, a circuit board triggered by the keycap to generate a command signal, a baseboard located at one side of the circuit board and a driven mechanism with two ends connecting to the keycap and baseboard. In the aforesaid illuminated keyboard, the keycap is pressed by a force to move toward the circuit board, and the driven mechanism is also compressed downwards to trigger and set on a circuit switch on the circuit board to generate a corresponding control signal. When the force pressing the keycap is absent, the driven mechanism provides a return elastic force to push the keycap to move away from the circuit board at a selected elevation. As the driven mechanism always is formed at a certain thickness, even it is compressed when being driven by the keycap, it still has a certain height. Hence the driven mechanism becomes a constraint that makes slimness of the illuminated keyboard difficult.
In order to overcome the problem caused by the driven mechanism, some producers have proposed other keyboard designs. For instance, Taiwan utility model No. M434979 discloses a design which has a first support member and a second support member coupled to form a V-shaped structure to overcome the thickness problem caused by the conventional driven mechanism that adopts an X-shaped structure. Although the structure disclosed in this prior art can reduce the thickness of the illuminated keyboard, it utilizes the driven mechanism only in another form, hence still has limited effect on slimness of the keyboard. Moreover, deployment of the first and second support members makes assembly of the keyboard more difficult and requires more assembly steps.